Iraqi challenger Iyad Allawi said yesterday he would not accept a return to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's "one-man rule," indicating a long struggle in the shaping of a new government following the March 7 election.
The latest results of the parliamentary poll show a tight race between the Shiite prime minister, who was edging slightly ahead, and Allawi, who was dominating mostly Sunni provinces.
"Our concern really is the welfare and well-being of the people, regardless of what kind of shape the government will take or how long it's going to take," said Allawi, a former prime minister who heads the cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc.
"Because we are not going to accept forming a very quick government, a very quick fix for a government, that would bring the same disasters of the last four years again to Iraq," Allawi said in Beirut.
The strong showing by the secularist Allawi among Sunnis promises to be a key factor in coming talks and in Iraq's security as U.S. forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2011.
Analysts have said a government excluding Iraqiya risked sparking resentment felt by the Sunni minority since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ended its grip on power.
Allawi said he was open to alliances, including with Maliki, providing he moved away from sectarianism and embraced reconciliation.
Maliki's support for a move to bar hundreds of candidates for alleged links to Saddam Hussein's now outlawed Baath party has alienated many Sunnis and prompted criticism from Allawi.
"We have seen so far that he is adamant not only on representing the sectarian move ... he has been appointing senior officials in the government all belonging not only to the sect, (but) to his party which we think is very dangerous and can cause a lot of problems in the country," Allawi said. "If (Maliki) changes his attitude not by words but by deeds ... then of course we'll be very willing to co-operate with him.
"The dynamics have changed, maybe this will alert him that he will have no future if he persists in whatever he has done."
